fly zone

 

29-08-26 Another trip to the Botanics. Not the best weather but I felt it might be the place to find some end of Summer butterflies, or failing that, some hoverflies to macro. First place I checked was the Ceratostigma minus in the rock garden; a vibrant blue shrub often visited at this time of year by admirals, and memorably a very late humming-bird hawk-moth a couple of years ago. I am beginning to lose faith in this late blooming beauty as there has been nothing on its flowers last few visits. But the petals themselves are worth a photo. 

ceratostigma minus

In order to add some interest and challenge myself I put the 90mm macro lens on from word go today. There is a slight reluctance to do this: I love the lens and the results I get from it but there is always the fomo, the worry that something like a kestrel will land on a tree and I'll be racing to swap to the 400mm zoom and it flies off before I can swap. The macro lens can shoot more distant objects, it just doesn't have the reach of the zoom. In its favour it is lighter to carry around and gives me a window into the world of tiny creatures where you get to see small flies in amazing detail. Almost too much at times! It is slightly harder to operate (aperture (+dof) becomes imperative and so much more than just a blurry background or not) and you can't shoot stuff from a distance easily. You have to get down and dirty, kneeling or lying down alongside the subject. But the results are really worth it. Especially on a day like today when there is (spoiler alert) heehaw about.

So the downside of the macro lens is you can't get close ups of more distant butterflies (without walking across the planted area) However there was nothing apart from painted ladies in the rock garden and then on the buddleias at the cafe. Not a great loss.

nice but currently v commonplace

13.29 and the nearest the cafe sundial gets to accurate

note the lack of a strong shadow, due to weak sunshine

note the Syrphus hover is in focus and petals not,
camera autofocus animal eye detection seems to recognise insects
which is a huge boon

Over at the Herbaceous Border there were some hovers and zero butterflies. The purple torch is only just unfurling long plumes and last year it failed to attract the numbers of butterflies seen in previous years. Favourite areas are the Demonstration Garden and the Queen Mother's Garden (weekends only) next door, both of which have lots of flowering stuff and plants that attract pollinators. I bumped into Ken at the Herbaceous Border and we chatted for quite a while about what was where and the state of the (butterfly) world.

lily

small white - one of the few butterflies about today

Following on from the poppy seedheads photo-ed at Cammo I have developed a hankering for them. Possibly because they are like hand-crafted pottery or shonky architecture, and have good textures and colours. Also they stay fairly still for photos and don't fly off which is nothing short of well mannered. Have you noticed in quality films or Netflix series where they are doing thoughtful camera work they will often use a similar (thin depth of field) shot where the actors eyes are in focus but the depth of field is minimal and the edges of their head and ears (and background) might start getting a little blurry. Often used for intense dramatic scenes. Or stoic self-reflection. All the rage in a quiet way.

intense dramatic poppy head

The depth of field (how much of the image is in focus) becomes a crucial part of macro. The most expensive (Prime) lenses often boast really low f/stop numbers (meaning wide aperture (and blurred out background) is available) but in macro (due to the tiny amount of focal plane) you probably want to shoot somewhere between f/8 and f/22 depending on your equipment. Too wide an aperture and only a tiny bit of the fly will be in focus.

Getting the right aperture becomes crucial and so I try to keep an eye on the results as I shoot them. Oddly I am not sure if I can change the video aperture settings easily and suspect that is done in auto response to how much light is available. (It works really well in 95% of the stuff I shoot so I haven't needed to investigate it.) All the footage I shot today was slo-mo as these hoverflies move so frantically that slo-mo brings their actions down to a more comprehensbible rate. In real time they just fidget madly for a second or two then fly off. At 120fps one second becomes 4.8 and they go about their business in a more relaxed and understandable fashion!

Eristalis pertinax

fl'eye

Sheepstrike greenbottle - Lucilia sericata

did not make the video cut

Syrphus ribesii

campion

Eristalis pertinax

as above

more poppies

French marigold

Myathropa florea

as above (Batman hoverfly)

some sort of ichneumon

Lygus pratensis

Inula helenium with retreating hoverfly

There are lots of great looking apples growing in the Demonstration garden, alongside notices saying do not pick them. I restrained myself to taking only photos, going for maximum apple flavour.

honey bee on pot marigold

lots of tapered drone flies about
Eristalis pertinax

Myathropa florea

as above

I had loads of material to use for this video. I came across a wonderfully tranquil piece of music "Rest This Worried Heart" by Benjamin Gustafsson to use as soundtrack. I laid some clips out and then inserted the music and the two did not match. So I shortened and lengthened* the clips and moved them about until I had something that worked. Nomally I'd just place clips in the order they were shot, however that wasn't working here, and I had to work harder to get it just right.

Given the finite limit of the music (a bit over 2minutes only) I had to work within this. Quite a few clips were binned entirely; a thing I am reluctant to do, especially if they are good quality or of an insect otherwise not shown in the video. (Bye-bye greenbottle and ichneumon.) My compulsion to be complete had to be contained! However the sacrifice was worth it, as the resulting video is one of my  most successful (in my opinion). I find the 2minutes passes like 20secs and nothing jars or disturbs the flow of the visuals. I was initially concerned the clips were a bit soft with too much out-of-focus, but that adds to the dreamy nature of the whole, which the soundtrack enhances.

North side of Botanics

*It is far easier to cut a clip short, than extend it, which can be done by slowing the timing of the clip. The very first clip I needed to go a second or two longer to match the phrasing of the music. I played it at 0.8 of the original speed and that gave me enough distance without it looking jumpy or using the less well focussed section. I don't use a terribly modern editing software (PowerDirector 16) but it gives me options to tweak clips slightly - like cropping in and panning or lightening the clip. (Although not darkening.)

The thing I use most often is a stabilising function which you can use incrementally to decrease camera shake. Being handheld (not using a tripod) and filming in max close up there can be some camera shake but the slo-mo setting helps avoid too much. Plus I have various ways when squatting or lying close to the ground to support my camera arm. Top tip: rest your right elbow on your right knee to give stability when shooting (kneeling) at half height.

The only remarkable butterfly of the day was this small copper in the rock garden. I had just bumped into Ken again on my way towards the exit and he was asking had I met Alan C who was also in the gardens taking photos today, and had found a couple of small coppers. Just as we were discussing this a perfect small copper dropped out of the sky behind Ken and landed on these ragged (hosta?) leaves. I had to lean towards them to get a photo with the macro lens but well worth it as the specimen was the best small copper I'd seen in ages. A nice finish to the day. I said bye to Ken and headed home with 10GBs of material. Mostly video, which uses a lot of data. If I shot RAW it would be about about 5 times that amount on my hard drive. 

how to get your money's worth!

5.6miles in 4hrs